


Crossroads

by thegreatstoryteller



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Existential Crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 22:08:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13726959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreatstoryteller/pseuds/thegreatstoryteller
Summary: T’Challa felt himself standing at a crossroads. Would he let Erik live, or die?





	Crossroads

T’Challa felt himself standing at a crossroads. Each path would bring him victory and defeat together. The world around him slowed and fell away, and only the paths existed. The dirt roads were clear and distinct, but all around them were hues blue and purple like that in the ancestral lands. Which path to take?

Erik was reaching for the blade piercing his chest. Let him die?-Or, let him live? Two paths, each with their consequences. The question for T’Challa was which choice would his conscience let him live through. Which would he be able to live with himself for making?

This boy-No this man beside him, his world had been stripped from him at such a young age. Could T’Challa let that happen again? Erik’s father was misguided and thought the cause he fought for was one worth risking everything for. Erik had thought the same for his own. He had been a man on a mission to change the world. He saw the inequality, the prejudice, the racism surrounding his world and he moved to change it. T’Challa understood that, but forcing change with warfare and weapons would have only made the world worse.

But, what else did he know. He’d spent his life as a soldier, fighting to survive. Warfare was in his blood, blood was on his hands, and his hands were still reaching for the blade. T’Challa felt himself shaking. The paths were becoming clouded.

This man was wronged by his own kin. His father murdered by his uncle. When kin turns on kin, it becomes the ultimate betrayal. Then to have his uncle forsake him, exile him to a life on the outside, disconnected from his people, his home. T’Challa would never be able to forgive his father for that.

If his father had made a different choice, to embrace that boy instead of turning his back to him…..he wouldn’t be having to make this decision. To let his cousin live or die. In another lifetime, one where Erik had been brought to Wakanda like he should have been as a child, they could have been friends. Yes, that sounded good. It sounded right. T’Challa thinks that in that case they would have been very good friends.

And there was still time for that.

“No” T’Challa hand came up, blocking Erik’s hand from the blade. Erik watched him with wide, questioning eyes. “You will not die here cousin. Wakanda is your home, and we will not forsake you again.”

T’Challa lifted Eric to his feet and took him to the lab. Shuri wasn’t thrilled about healing a man who had tried to kill her ten minutes earlier, but she did as her king instructed without question. T’Challa hoped she would forgive him.

As Erik laid on the healing bed, unconsciousness taking his mind far away, so that his body may heal. T’Challa could feel it in his gut, this was right. He had taken the correct path. The path his father had been too afraid to take. He would not abandon Erik, he would not abandon family. 

**Author's Note:**

> Saw this movie yesterday, got inspired to whip up a little ficlet.


End file.
